Earlier this week I watched the Joe Rogan podcast in which he interviewed presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Yang is running on a platform based around universal basic income. His position was formed by the realization that, sometime pretty soon, a lot of the workforce will be replaced by automation. Personally, I’ve noticed that people shy away from this topic…possibly based on fear.

Universal income is also in the air right now because of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the “green new deal” which includes what is being described as economic security for those “unwilling to work”.

Our family is maybe a little quirky. Last night we had a Valentine’s Day dinner at a truck stop Wendy’s down the road. The place was filled with truckers, mostly male and roughly my age (50s). I was thinking to myself that, if the robot trucks were to become a reality tomorrow, this burger joint is chock full of guys who are going to be jobless and…they aren’t unwilling to work.

I don’t know when this technology is going to be in place but, judging by what I’ve seen in my days, it will happen before we think it will.

The world is changing fast, the problems are complex and dimensional and can’t be solved by linear thinking (the bogus left vs. right “political spectrum”).

I still believe there are answers in decentralization: in this case, we don’t need all these trucks running up and down the road robot or otherwise.

“Decentralized systems are the quintessential patrons of simplicity. They allow complexity to rise to a level at which it is sustainable, and no higher.” ~ L.K. Samuels, In Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action

Also, be wary of austerity proposals endorsed by the oligarchs, central banks and power structure that still has an effective control over the flow of information.